So you signed up for a mystery shopping gig and a few days later you get your first payment/cheque in the mail. All you have to do is cash the cheque, keep some of the cash for your trouble and forward the balance to your new employer. Easy enough! Hold on a second, you may want to read the following article I came across on the Canoe network this morning.

Brad Buxton knew the mystery shopper gig he signed up for was a scam when he received a cheque for $2,500 just days later.

All he had to do was cash the bogus funds at a MoneyGram outlet and wire $2,200 of it to Toronto. He would get to keep the rest of the money as a so-called participation fee for helping evaluate MoneyGram’s customer service.

But if he had gone through with the scheme, he would have been on the hook for the $2,500 once the bank realized the cheque was fake.

Read the entire article here.

Be warned. Always use common sense, do your research (BBB) and ask around if you’re not sure (forums and discussion groups online). Scammers are getting really good at cheating people out of the hard earned money. BTW, never pay for a job or the promise of a job.